Impress Me
by Vampirycent
Summary: [KaiRei, KaiTal] 4 year old Kai escapes from the abbey only to return ten years later with new blading skills and one question in his mind : Would his Grandfather be impressed? R&R. Shonenai.


**A/N** : Here's another one. I quite like the idea for this… It's a Kai/Tala friendship fic with a tiny bit of shonen-ai between them later on, though it's mainly KaiRei.

**Warning** : Strong language & shonen-ai later in the fic, this chapter's pretty safe!

**Disclaimer** : I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters. The characters you do not recognise are mine and are not to be stolen/used in any story other than my own.

------------------------------------

"No! Don't _want_ to!" One very stubborn child stood his ground, staring with crimson eyes up at his elders, two-toned hair bushing out frantically in his struggle. They were trying very hard to take him away from the dark building they were outside of, known as Balcov Abbey, and improve the young boy's life, but 4-year-old Kai Hiwatari didn't look very impressed. He _knew_ he wasn't allowed to leave and he _knew_ that he'd get into a lot of trouble if he did and when he got in trouble, he got punished.

"Come on kid, it's going to be _good_ for you! Just follow us!" The teens of the abbey had rounded up an escape party and were trying to take as many of the children with them as possible so they wouldn't get hurt like _they_ had… But unfortunately, trying to get the Boss's grandson away from the place was proving to be more difficult than they had anticipated : The child did not want to move. "Come _on _Hiwatari!" Once again the boy shook his head, starting to scream and shout, clinging onto the door frame as if it was his life-support as a tall teenage boy tried to pull him away. "No! Kai will get in trouble! Kai no like trouble!" He screamed and kicked as much as possible until they let go, knowing he would wake up the entire crew of workers – the ones who would kill anyone they caught trying to escape.

"Kai?" The voice of another small boy was heard from the crowd and a tiny, slim boy whose flame red hair was messily peaked into a devil-horn-like style walked over, his pretty, bright ice-blue eyes shining half with excitement, half with anxiety as he pushed his way through the crowd, clutching a blanket and stopped before his now silent friend at the doorway. The redheaded child held out a hand to the young Hiwatari and a somewhat pleading look crossed over his face. "Come on. They will make it better, they said. You come with me Kai, I don't want to go alone."

A pair of pinky-red eyes glanced toward the group of teens, then back to the lithe figure of his best friend beside him, still shakily holding out an expectant hand. Slowly, the small slate-haired child lessened his grip on the brick doorframe and nodded gently. "Okay Tala. Let's go now." He whispered, wiping his tear-stained cheeks with the back of his tiny, pale hand. The teenage ringleaders seemed to heave a huge sigh of relief as the two small boys joined hands and wandered over to the crowd, shivering lightly. Whether it was from the cold winds of Russia or from the fear of eventually being caught and having to go back, nobody knew, but all the children and all the teens were shaking as they began the long walk away from the Hell they called home.

None of the children knew what was going on and why these older boys had led them away from their home, their training grounds, but each and every one knew that there must be some reason that this was happening. Being the youngest child that had ever lived in Balcov Abbey, Kai was the least sure about leaving his home and his Grandfather who let him beyblade all day long and then sleep for many quiet hours at night. He was safe there, _surely_, so why did these teenagers want to take him away from his home? He had often seen the older boys crying and shying away from the workers but he had never understood why, he was too young to know; too young to notice that his peers were suffering, scared of being inside the tall, dark building that had been their home for many years. One day he'd find out as one day he'd have to go back… Surely his grandfather would miss him? Besides, he wanted to be a world champion beyblader, and Balcov Abbey was _the_ place to learn.

After rounding everybody up at around two in the morning when everywhere was quiet, it was close to three a.m. by the time the group of six teens and eight children finally managed to escape the grounds and were lost out in the countryside, and just another few minutes before the youngest of the group, heir to BioVolt and the Hiwatari grounds, wanted to sleep. He was only four years old and had already been worked beyond his limits that day by his grandfather and couldn't really carry on. He yanked and tugged at the group leader, a seventeen year old boy who called himself 'Stealth', and begged to stop.

"We can't stop Kai, we'll get caught." The teen's green-eyed gaze softened as he looked down upon the desperately tired eyes of the child and crouched down. "Come on." The small blunette lifted his arms and allowed himself to be picked up and balanced on the boy's strong arm, leaning his tired head down on Stealth's broad shoulder.

"How much longer?" A small voice of another child asked, soon followed by more questions along the same sort of lines. It was becoming obvious to the elders of the group that they'd have to find somewhere to stop to let the little ones rest – And soon. The youngest members of the group were lagging behind quite a lot and blatantly couldn't cope with much more. They trudged through snow and cold winds, some of them weren't even dressed for that kind of harsh weather so they were dangerously cold too.

Finding the snow too deep now, five-year-old Tala slipped over and began to cry, sat shivering in the icy depth, his clothes wet and freezing. He was cold and he was tired and he just wanted to go to sleep. "Wait for me!" He moaned as he sobbed, tears instantly freezing on his cheeks. A brown-haired boy, whom the young redhead recognised as Adrian, Stealth's twelve year old brother, gripped him under his tiny arms and lifted him into a warm embrace, wrapping his snow-soaked blanket around his shaking form for extra protection, despite the fact the blanket itself was just as cold as the night air. The children could not cope with this, if they didn't find somewhere soon, they would die for sure.

"Just hold on, we'll stop somewhere as soon as we can." The boy soothed as best he could, cradling the shaking Tala tightly as the child started to drift off into a restless sleep. Adrian hastened to catch up with Stealth and gazed worriedly at the pale boy in his arms – Kai was _too_ cold, he couldn't handle this immense lack of warmth. Stealth seemed to read his brother's mind and carefully shrugged his jacket off and wrapped it around the sleeping child.

"He needs it more than I do." The teen muttered, ruffling the slate hair with affection. Even if the little blunette didn't understand what would have happened to him had he stayed at the abbey, the elder orphans did, and strived to look after the innocent little child for as long as they could – It was their lives or his at BioVolt. How somebody could treat children in such a way was beyond the teens, but most of them had been through it. Either they got everything right or they got beaten, sometimes they were attacked regardless of how well they were doing, it was just the way things worked at the abbey, and it wasn't right.

It had been during a training session that Stealth and his best friend Tyrone – another of the escape party ringleaders – had seen the cold-hearted grandfather of the child actually swipe out at the boy and knock him to the floor, not caring about the cries that Kai emitted, so loud for such a small child – he was only three at the time. It _wasn't right_, especially when the blunette's nose began to pour with blood and his own asshole of a grandfather didn't even bat an eyelid. That idiot man just didn't care. Kai's parents couldn't care for him either, Voltaire had refused to let them. He assured Kai's mother that her son being trained at the abbey would be the best thing in the long run – Sure, the best thing for _who_? Certainly not little Kai. He should have been in a nursery, not being beaten to a pulp everyday by somebody who was supposed to look after him. Even after this treatment, it had been perfectly obvious that Kai didn't want to leave the place he called home. Said child began to stir, wriggling in the grip of Stealth. "I'm cold." He whined quietly, teeth chattering in the freezing winds. The teen sighed, rocking the boy slightly.

"I know you are Kai, we're trying as hard as we can. It's not far to the city, maybe then we'll be able to get some warm beds and nice hot food for you all, okay?" He replied, shaking from the cold air. Still, at least the little boy seemed satisfied : he nodded his head and snuggled up in Stealth's coat so only his fluffy slate hair was visible, then slowly closed his eyes again and left the cold air for a dream world where he was still in his mother's keep and everything was okay.

He had these dreams often. Every time his grandfather would hit him and he cried, he would imagine being able to run to his mother and she would cuddle him and everything would be fine. No such luck though, he couldn't really remember what his parents looked like, but the ones he created in his mind her perfect. They loved him no matter if he got things wrong, they would care for him even if he was a little bit small for his age… And most of all – They would never hurt him, no matter _what_. He would sit and imagine all these things when he was upset and wonder what he had done wrong to get treated badly. He didn't _mean_ to be not quite as clever as the other children. He didn't _mean_ to get tired after a lot of exercise, and he couldn't _help_ being smaller than the other kids.

All his teachers and the staff at the abbey continually told him he was a failure but he didn't really understand why, but he hoped that one day he would so he could get it right and please the unaffectionate old man that he called "Grandfather."

It wasn't until ten years later that he thought he was ready to prove himself to the man – But there was still one question on Kai's mind : Would Voltaire be impressed?

------------------------------------


End file.
